Creating the World: Creativity in a World in Crisis
An Online Revolutionary Conversation
with Gwen Lowenheim and David Belmont
October 28 - November 23* 
Registration: $135; Student/Retired: $75; Low Income: $50 
*Conversation is asynchronous -- participants are in different time zones and read/post messages on their own schedule.

Once the almost exclusive domain of artists and the academy, the public discourse on creativity is now filled with the voices of community organizers, entrepreneurs, educators, therapists and others exploring what creativity is and how we can develop as creative agents of social change. However, in moments of extreme crisis (e.g., war, natural disasters, intractable poverty, major illness, family distress) there is a tendency to throw creativity out the window. Traditional solutions rule the day. Creativity is ignored or considered frivolous. 

Can play and experimentation be used effectively to bring communities together and empower people, even under challenging circumstances? Explore methodologies and possibilities for growth in a world in crisis with community organizers and performance activists Gwen Lowenheim and David Belmont. Class will include participation by organizers on the ground on the Balkan route in Europe. 

Gwen Lowenheim, M.S. Ed., is a learning design specialist and a TESOL instructor. She is co-founder/co-director of The Snaps Project, an educational consulting firm. Gwen trains educators in a social therapeutic, performance-based learning approach that brings creativity and innovation into the classroom. Her programs introduce theatrical improvisation, philosophical exploration and group play in developing collaborative teams, language learning and stress management. In addition to being an East Side Institute faculty member, Gwen is a staff trainer for Performance of a Lifetime

David Belmont is a writer, musician, community organizer and long-time political reform activist. Since the 1970s as part of Manhattan's rock and performance art scenes, he has composed music for poetry, mime, theatre, film and dance and has independently produced 24 albums of his own work. In addition to being on the faculty of the East Side Institute, he is currently co-musical director of the Castillo Theatre, a researcher for independentvoting.org and is writing a novel. He studied philosophy at the University of Chicago in the 1960s and continued philosophizing with Fred Newman from 1979 to present.

For more information or to register go to: www.eastsideinstitute.org/events or contact mmeyer@eastsideinstitute.org, 212-941-8906,ext 304.